Hadijah Nampina of Uganda is one of those whose lives are being changed by Boulder-based BeadforLife. Photo: Provided by BeadforLife

The Boulder-based nonprofit BeadforLife is the winner of More magazine’s 2012 Job Genius Award and will use the $20,000 prize to expand its mission of helping impoverished Ugandan women to change their lives through their own hard work, creating markets for their bead jewelry and shea butter beauty items.

The announcement appears in the magazine’s December/January issue, which is on newsstands now.

Ten organizations that are creating jobs for women took part in the competition, with the winner selected by votes cast on the magazine’s website.

“Thousands voted and BeadforLife came out on top, earning $20,000 to help Ugandan women overcome extreme poverty, disease, war and hardship by empowering them to rebuild their lives,” notes BeadforLife executive director Devin Hibbard. “Impoverished Ugandan women achieve this through their own hard work rolling beads to create jewelry, harvesting shea nuts for butter to create beauty items and ultimately, launching their own businesses that will sustain them into the future.

“If we can educate a new woman to expand her business, that is the greatest gift we can offer, as it will sustain her family into the future,” Hibbard adds.

— Writer-director Rian Johnson, son of Cherry Hills Village residents Craig and Lisa Daniel-Johnson, is letting friends know that his third major motion picture, “Looper,” will be released in September.

The sci-fi, time travel flick stars Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and even has a don’t blink or you’ll miss it role for his dad. Lisa Daniel-Johnson is active in the Denver Center Alliance and the Volunteers of America Guild.

— Actress Susan Saint James and her hubby, Dick Ebersol, the senior adviser to NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, are to be the special guests at Glitz, Glam & Glory, the annual fundraising gala hosted by Glory Community.

Denver chapter of The Links, Inc., is launching its 60th year by reviving an event first staged by its founding members: a rummage sale.

Diamond in the Rough, a sale of nearly new clothing and accessories for men, women and children, runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 29 at Hallett Fundamental Academy, 2950 Jasmine St. It is the kickoff event for the chapter’s Diamond Anniversary year.

Proceeds will go to Hallett’s Stepping Into The Future program and the chapter’s other community-based initiatives. Stepping Into The Future supports academic and cultural enrichment programming for the students of Hallett Fundamental Academy, a Denver Public School in the Park Hill neighborhood. Hallett serves a high-risk student population that is 90 percent minority with 87 percent of the student body receiving free or reduced-cost lunches.

For the past three years, Denver chapter of The Links, Inc., has collaborated with Hallett’s principal, faculty, and parents to support academic excellence in the classroom and to connect the 4th- and 5th-grade students with Denver’s cultural and recreational offerings.

The celebrating didn’t end once the dedication of the $43 million Evie Garrett Dennis Campus in Green Valley Ranch was complete. Dennis, the retired superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, was whisked off to the Crowne Plaza Hotel Denver International Airport for a reception put on by her daughter, Pia Dennis Smith; her cousin, Faye Wattleton; and members of Epsilon Nu Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Dennis, a 2008 inductee to the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, came to Denver following her graduation from St. Louis University. She initially worked as a researcher in the field of children’s asthma; she started teaching in 1966, and was eventually charged with implementing and monitoring the U.S. District Court order to desegregate the Denver Public Schools. Dennis was appointed deputy superintendent of the DPS in 1998 and superintendent two years later. She retired in 1994.

In addition to education, Dennis also has made a name for herself in the world of sports. Starting as a supporter of her daughter’s high school track team, she went on to have leadership roles with the Rocky Mountain Amateur Athletic Union, USA Track and Field, the U.S. Olympics Committee and the U.S. Sports Academy. She is a 2004 inductee to the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame and twice served as chef de mission to the Pan Am Games as well as to the 1988 Olympics.

Guests at the reception included representatives for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall and U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (Paul Sample and Deborah Parsons, respectively); Larry Borom, chairman of the DPS Black Education Advisory Council; and Terry Nelson from the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library. Dennis’ cousin, Faye Wattleton, was president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 1978-92. She is also the co-founder and past president of the Center for the Advancement of Women.